Inga

In 1977 I bought a Nordic Folkboat in Victoria BC. Built in 1959 in Vejle, Denmark by Børresen’s, the boat was a 25’ 6” copper-fastened clinker hull of pitch-pine on oak, with a mahogany house and spruce spars. It had been part of a large fleet of Folkboats racing in San Francisco Bay, before being brought up to Victoria in the 70s. For 22 years I sailed this boat with my family and friends, from Victoria and Vancouver through the Gulf Islands, the San Juans, Desolation Sound, the Broken Group, and up to Hot springs Cove above Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Over time, the boat was rigged for single handing, with all lines led to the cockpit, and the original bronze winches served for both jib sheets and halyards. I built a new spruce boom after the old one broke against the shrouds in an uncontrolled jibe. All the cabinetry and laminated deck-beams, even the mast step, originally glued up with resorcinol glue, let go after 20 years and everything was redone with cold-cure epoxy.
In 1982 I installed a Yanmar 1GM diesel engine in the boat, replacing the transom-mounted 9 HP Mercury outboard which was prone to quitting when pitched underwater in a seaway. The installation involved bolting new timber beds to the floors in the cockpit, for the engine to sit below the companionway; boxing it in and attaching a new main-sheet traveller to the top; making new drop-boards and rebuilding the sliding hatch. Controls, electrics and fuel tank were all added. The sternpost, reinforced with oak cheekpieces, was drilled through for the new propellor shaft, made by VM Dafoe. A cutaway in the rudder accommodated a 3-bladed bronze propellor cast by Osburne in North Vancouver. (This cutaway severely weakened the rudder, which snapped in two the first trip through Baines Channel; a temporary repair with marine plywood plates and stainless bolts served for more than 15 years.)
The boat was finally sold in 1999 to Roger Clapham, who removed and rebedded the 1200-pound cast-iron keel with new bolts, and replaced the fibreglass decks with traditional plywood and stretched canvas. (Much of this work was done by Tony Grove, a talented shipwright on Gabriola Island who has a strong penchant for Folkboats.)